Grand River Bridge, Grand Haven, MI (CSX, former GTW) ♦
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Location: Grand River Bridge, Grand Haven, MI (CSX, former GTW)
CSX. Bridge formerly owned by the Grand Trunk Western.
Notes
Time Line
1878. The original drawbridge is built by the DGH&M.
1881. The tug Batchelor was towing the schooner Ottawa down the river this evening. The Ottawa struck the railroad bridge at Ferrysburgh, injuring it so that it was considered unsafe for the mail train west to pass over, and the passengers were transferred. The damage to the bridge was slight. [DFP-1881-0417]
1883. The locomotive sunk by running off the bridge at Ferrysburg has been recovered. The hoisting machinery has been transferred to Grand Rapids where it will be used to raise the sunken iron bridge. [DFP-1883-0910] Editor's note: This bridge has not been precisely identified. There were at least two bridges at Ferrysburg.
1884. The Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee railroad is building a new swing bridge across the Grand River at Ferrysburg, the old one being badly shattered, having stood the pounding of logs and ice for 8 years. [WEX-0884-0306]
1933. Frank Wallert, 50, bridge tender for the GTW railroad, was beaten fatally Sunday night by two ore more men who robbed him as he lay dying. Police held William Wildorf, 39 and William McCafferty, 39, of Grand Haven and sought a third man. Wallert died in a hospital here. He was on his way to work not long before midnight when he took a short cut along some deeply shaded railroad tracks. It was there he was attacked. Police found a bloodstained club and a whisky bottle. Wildorf was dismissed last week from the bridge tending job which Wallert had been employed to fill. [LDN-1933-0828]
Bibliography
The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:
- [AAB| = All Aboard!, by Willis Dunbar, Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids ©1969.
- [AAN] = Alpena Argus newspaper.
- [AARQJ] = American Association of Railroads Quiz Jr. pamphlet. © 1956
- [AATHA] = Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association newsletter "The Double A"
- [AB] = Information provided at Michigan History Conference from Andrew Bailey, Port Huron, MI